Without UNRWA, Palestinians might be decent neighbors

I have long said that the only way to truly de-radicalize the Gazan population would be the institution of a Marshall Plan-style economic infusion at the end of the war. But the Trump announcement was not exactly what I meant by that. I’m going to leave aside the question of the absent empathy, ethics and morality of such a plan for the moment, and argue that such a move would not be in the interest of Israel.

First, it would then retroactively turn a justifiable war into one motivated by the end goal of actual ethnic cleansing, but second, our closest ally, America, would then be participating in an act of actual colonialism — because there would be a mother country, and one that would be economically benefiting from said reconstruction (because let’s be honest, a Trump hotel would be the first to be built). It would destroy Israel’s reputation on the world stage, and it involves a plan of such casual cruelty that anyone with a history of trauma of displacement should be decrying. Further, it would threaten to destabilize relationships with Egypt and Jordan, two of Israel’s closest and most important allies. Anyone who believes that Israel can survive and thrive in the Middle East without those peace treaties — however fragile they may seem at times — is deluding themselves. 

Of course, it will not happen, but that is beside the point: those who are celebrating it are either not knowledgeable enough to understand the real-life implications and what it would portend in the future, or are too ideologically motivated to care. I too believe that Hamas and their supporters should not be rewarded for the actions of October 7th and every day since, but I think that there is a far more realistic and more humane consequence to all of this: the dissolution of UNRWA. After all, it would achieve a similar goal. 

The singularity of the Palestinian refugee status, and the international community’s indulgence of it, has been the singular propellant of the ongoing conflict. The singularity of what it means to be a Palestinian “refugee” as opposed to any other refugee group is codified by UNRWA: not only are Palestinian “refugees” — the only ones given said status in perpetuity, passed on from generation to generation — but they are the only ones who are guaranteed a right of return by UNRWA. Refugees under the umbrella of UNHCR get neither such guarantees. 

UNRWA has long been known to be a problematic organization, and I think the Jewish community’s complete lack of surprise that UNRWA employees were found to not only support the October 7th massacre but also to have been involved in either the attack or the taking and keeping of hostages was telling. No one was surprised to find out that Hamas headquarters were underneath UNRWA compounds. I doubt anyone was surprised to find that Emily Damari was denied aid in an UNRWA compound. 

The simple reality is this: UNRWA and Hamas are natural bedfellows. After all, to a certain extent, their end goals are the same. They both fundamentally deny the State of Israel’s existence, are predicated on Palestinian Arabs’ return to modern-day Israel, and are attempting to undo the creation of a sovereign state that emerged out of a war that they began in the first place. UNRWA was part of a project encouraged by Arabs as early as a year after the war, with the full knowledge that the “right of return” involved a fifth-column destruction of the State of Israel. For those who need the sources, read Einat Wilf’s “The War of Return.” Now, with over 7 million “refugees” (including Gigi and Bella Hadid), were Israel to be flooded under said wave, Jews would once again be a targeted and vulnerable minority. 

The UNRWA curriculum is shocking for an organization that pretends itself to be peaceful: I doubt much “peace” is learned by a curriculum that encourages jihadism, the destruction of Israel, the reclamation of every inch of land, and dying as a shahid. It is fundamentally devoted to the undoing of history, the reversion of the Middle East to its Arab population exclusively. See my analysis of how it compares to Nazi educational systems (the subject of my masters thesis) here. 

If Palestinian refugees were to be forcibly brought under the auspices of UNHCR, with all of the implications therein, think of how quickly the Palestinian nationalism movement would be forced to change. If you are no longer guaranteed some insane and unworkable “right of return” by the United Nations, you have to get more serious about what an eventual Palestinian state would look like. You would also have to realize that eventually you would be required to accept the offer of statehood, one that has been repeatedly offered and rejected. If you are no longer being fed on a diet of “I can undo the creation of the State of Israel,” perhaps more pragmatic voices emerge. If UNRWA is no longer facilitating and abetting Hamas, Hamas loses a major source of its leverage and aid. And if Palestinian refugees lose this special refugee status that has become a major source of identity and politics, perhaps it’s finally time to get down to brass tacks. Keeping Palestinians in a limbo status, where they’re not permitted to truly resettle and integrate into other Arab nations for fear of the loss of this refugee identity, without the capacity to move either forward or backward, has done nothing for them except to impoverish and radicalize them. After all, those two things usually go hand-in-hand.

Israel exists. It’s time that they accepted that. And that acceptance will never come with UNRWA’s continued existence. And what a consequence of the tragedy of October 7th that would be. More importantly, it is one that would not come at the expense of the morality and the soul of the Jewish people.